National

Nitish to contest from Barh, Nalanda

By K. Balchand

PATNA, MARCH 27. The Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, will be contesting from the Lok Sabha constituencies of Barh and Nalanda.

The Janata Dal (United) parliamentary board chairman and Union Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Sharad Yadav, announced this at a press conference here today.

He denied any rift between Mr. Kumar and the JD(U) chief and Defence Minister, George Fernandes, who shifted to Muzaffarpur from Nalanda, making way for Mr. Kumar.

Mr. Yadav said Mr. Kumar was contesting from two seats because the party wanted him to. Mr. Kumar had reportedly expressed displeasure over Mr. Fernandes shifting to Muzaffarpur and wanted him to contest from Nalanda, while he (Mr. Kumar) would contest from Barh.

Political observers said, despite the assertions of Mr. Kumar and Mr. Yadav to the contrary, Mr. Fernandes had been forced to move to Muzaffarpur. Mr. Kumar had been uncomfortable in Barh, managing to scrape through in the face of stiff opposition from the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Mr. Fernandes had won easily from Nalanda in 1996, 1998 and 1999 because of Mr. Kumar's support. Despite this, differences cropped up between the two which almost split the Samata Party. Eventually, Mr. Kumar had his way and the party was merged with the JD(U) with Mr. Fernandes being made the president of the party.

In 1977, Mr. Fernandes won in Muzaffarpur while in jail and won again from the seat in 1989 and 1991. The BJP sitting MP, Jai Narain Nishad, has not taken kindly to Mr. Fernandes' decision and has charged the JD(U) with violating the norms of coalition politics.

Mr. Nishad charged that Mr. Fernandes had not taken him into confidence before "grabbing" the constituency. He said he would quit the BJP and contest the seat.

The BJP was making last-ditch efforts to dissuade him, as his quitting would send the wrong signal to the backward castes.

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